FULL Download Ebook PDF International Monetary Financial Economics by Daniels PDF Ebook

(eBook PDF) International Monetary
Financial Economics by Daniels

Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://ebooksecure.com/download/ebook-pdf-international-monetary-financial-econo
mics-by-daniels/
Contents vii
Balance-of-Payments Accounts 12
The Current Account 12
Policy Notebook
The Combined Current Account Deficit of Developed Nations
Translates into a Combined Current Account Surplus for
Emerging Countries 13
The Capital Account 14
ON THE WEB 15
The Official Settlements Balance 15
Deficits and Surpluses in the Balance of Payments 16
Other Deficit and Surplus Measures 17
Management Notebook
Trade Deficits: Faulty Indicators of Business Activity 17
Examples of International Transactions and How They Affect the
Balance of Payments 18
Example 1: Import of an Automobile 18
Example 2: A College Student Travels Abroad 19
Example 3: A Foreign Resident Purchases a Domestic
Treasury Bill 19
Example 4: The United States Pays Interest
on a Foreign-Held Asset 20
Example 5: A Charitable Organization in the United States
Provides Humanitarian Aid Abroad 20
Examples Combined 20
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Is a Country’s Balance of Payments, and What Does This
Measure? 20
The Capital Account and the International Flow of Assets 21
Example: A College Student 21
A Capital Account Surplus 21
The United States as a Net Debtor 22
DESIGN SERVICES OF
# 110305 Cust: Pearson Au: Daniels/Van Hoose Pg. No. vii K
Title: International Monetary & Financial Economics Server: S4C Short / Normal
S4carlisle
Publishing Services
viii Contents
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Does It Mean for a Country to Be a Net Debtor or Net
Creditor? 23
Relating the Current Account Balance and Capital Flows 23
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Is the Relationship between a Nation’s Current Account
Balance and Its Capital Flows? 24
Chapter Summary 24
Questions and Problems 25
Online Applications 26
Selected References and Further Readings 27
Chapter 2 The Market for Foreign Exchange 28

Exchange Rates and the Market for Foreign Exchange 29
The Role of the Foreign Exchange Market 29
Online Notebook 31
On the Internet, Currency Trading Spreads to the “Little
Guy” 31
ON THE WEB 31
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Is the Foreign Exchange Market? 32
Exchange Rates as Relative Prices 32
Currency Appreciation and Depreciation 32
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Does It Mean When a Currency Has Appreciated or
Depreciated? 33
Cross Rates 33
Bid–Ask Spreads and Trading Margins 34
The Bid–Ask Spread 34
The Bid–Ask Margin 34
ON THE WEB 35
Real Exchange Rates 35
DESIGN SERVICES OF
# 110305 Cust: Pearson Au: Daniels/Van Hoose Pg. No. viii K
S4carlisle
Publishing Services
Contents ix
The Effect of Price Changes 35

Measuring the Overall Strength or Weakness of a Currency:
Effective Exchange Rates 36
Constructing an Effective Exchange Rate 36
A Two-Country Example of an Effective Exchange Rate 37
Constructing Bilateral Weights 37
Determining Relative Exchange Rates 38
What an Effective Exchange Rate Tells Us 38
Real Effective Exchange Rates 39
ON THE WEB 40
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
How Is the General Value of a Currency Measured? 40
Composite Currencies 40
Special Drawing Right (SDR) 40
Calculation of the SDR 41
Foreign Exchange Arbitrage 42
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Is Foreign Exchange Arbitrage? 43
The Demand for and Supply of Currencies 43
The Demand for a Currency 43
Illustrating the Demand Relationship: The Demand
Curve 43
Management Notebook
Variations in the Dollar’s Value Induce Colleges to Adjust
Enrollments in Study-Abroad Programs 44
A Change in Demand 45
The Supply of a Currency 45
Illustrating the Supply Relationship: The Supply Curve 45
A Change in Supply 46
The Equilibrium Exchange Rate 47
Illustrating the Market Equilibrium 47
Example: A Change in Demand 47
DESIGN SERVICES OF
# 110305 Cust: Pearson Au: Daniels/Van Hoose Pg. No. ix K
S4carlisle
Publishing Services
x Contents
Foreign Exchange Market Intervention 48

FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Determines the Value of a Currency? 49
Purchasing Power Parity 49
Absolute Purchasing Power Parity 49
Arbitrage and PPP 50
Absolute PPP 50
Practical Problems and Shortcomings
of Absolute PPP 51
Management Notebook
Significant Gains from Arbitrage Turn Out to Be Mainly
Theoretical in Canada 52
Relative Purchasing Power Parity 52
ON THE WEB 52
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Is Purchasing Power Parity, and Is It Useful as a Guide to
Movements in Exchange Rates? 54
Chapter Summary 54
Chapter 3 Exchange-Rate Systems, Past to Present 58

Exchange-Rate Systems 59
Online Notebook
Foreign Exchange Rates for Virtual Money
Become a Reality 59
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Is an Exchange-Rate System? 60
The Gold Standard 60
The Gold Standard as an Exchange-Rate
System 60
DESIGN SERVICES OF
# 110305 Cust: Pearson Au: Daniels/Van Hoose Pg. No. x K
S4carlisle
Publishing Services
Contents xi
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
How Does a Gold Standard Constitute an Exchange-Rate
System? 61
Performance of the Gold Standard 62
Positive and Negative Aspects of a Gold Standard 62
The Economic Environment of the Gold Standard Era 62
The Collapse of the Gold Standard 63
The Bretton Woods System 63
ON THE WEB 64
The Bretton Woods Agreement 64
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Was the Bretton Woods System of “Pegged” Exchange
Rates? 66
Performance of the Bretton Woods System 66
The Gold Pool 66
President Nixon Closes the Gold Window 68
The Smithsonian Agreement and the Snake
in the Tunnel 68
The Flexible-Exchange-Rate System 69
The Economic Summits and a New Order 69
Performance of the Floating-Rate System 69
ON THE WEB 70
The Plaza Agreement and the Louvre Accord 70
The Euro 72
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Post–Bretton Woods System of “Flexible” Exchange Rates
Prevails Today? 73
Other Forms of Exchange-Rate Arrangements Today 73
Dollarization 74
Policy Notebook
U.S. Inflation Creates Economic Pain in El Salvador 74
Independent Currency Authorities 75
DESIGN SERVICES OF
# 110305 Cust: Pearson Au: Daniels/Van Hoose Pg. No. xi K
S4carlisle
Publishing Services
xii Contents
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Is Dollarization, and What Is a Currency Board? 76
Conventional Peg and Pegged with Bands 76
Currency Baskets 76
Selecting a Currency Basket 77
Management Notebook
A New Currency Basket Offers Weights
That Vary over Time 78
Managing the Currency Basket 78
Crawling Pegs 78
Nicaragua’s Crawling-Peg Arrangement 79
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Types of Pegged-Exchange-Rate Arrangements
Are Used Today? 79
Fixed or Floating Exchange Rates? 80
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
Which Is Best, a Fixed- or Flexible-Exchange-Rate
Arrangement? 80
Chapter Summary 80
Part 2 International Financial Instruments, Markets,

and Institutions 85
Chapter 4 The Forward Currency Market and International
Financial Arbitrage 86
Foreign Exchange Risk 87
Types of Foreign Exchange Risk Exposure 87
Hedging Foreign Exchange Risk 88
DESIGN SERVICES OF
# 110305 Cust: Pearson Au: Daniels/Van Hoose Pg. No. xii K
S4carlisle
Publishing Services
Contents xiii
Management Notebook
Japanese Automakers Ramp Up U.S. Production to Hedge
against a Depreciating Dollar 88
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Is Foreign Exchange Risk? 89
The Forward Exchange Market 89
Covering a Transaction with a Forward Contract 89
Determination of Forward Exchange Rates 90
The Forward Exchange Rate as a Predictor of the Future Spot
Rate 90
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Is the Forward Currency Market, and How Are Forward
Exchange Rates Determined? 92
International Financial Arbitrage 92
The International Flow of Funds and Interest Rate
Determination 93
Supply 93
Demand 93
Determination of the Market Interest Rate 94
Interest Parity 94
Exchange Uncertainty and Covered Interest Parity 95
Covered Interest Arbitrage 96
Covered-Interest-Parity Grid 96
Covered Interest Arbitrage and Savings Flows 97
Adjustment to an Equilibrium 97
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Is Covered Interest Parity? 99
Uncovered Interest Parity 99
Uncovered Interest Arbitrage 99
Management Notebook
Many Hungarians Literally Bet Their Houses on Exchange
Rates 100
DESIGN SERVICES OF
# 110305 Cust: Pearson Au: Daniels/Van Hoose Pg. No. xiii K
S4carlisle
Publishing Services
xiv Contents
Risk and Uncovered Interest Parity 101

Risks Other Than Foreign Exchange Risk 101
Tests of Uncovered Interest Parity 102
Management Notebook
The Carry-Trade Strategy for International
Investment 102
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Is Uncovered Interest Parity? 103
Foreign Exchange Market Efficiency 103
Market Efficiency 104
Evidence on Foreign Exchange Market Efficiency 104
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Is Foreign Exchange Market Efficiency? 104
International Financial Markets 104
International Capital Markets 105
International Money Markets 105
Eurobonds, Euronotes, and Eurocommercial Paper 105
Eurocurrencies 106
Origins of the Eurocurrency Market 106
Relationship to the Forward Market 107
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Are the International Financial Markets? 108
Chapter Summary 108
Chapter 5 Interest Yields, Interest Rate Risk, and Derivative

Securities 112
Interest Rates 113
Interest Yields and Financial Instrument Prices 113
DESIGN SERVICES OF
# 110305 Cust: Pearson Au: Daniels/Van Hoose Pg. No. xiv K
S4carlisle
Publishing Services
Contents xv
Interest Rates and Discounted Present Value 113

Discounted Present Value and the Market Price of
Bonds 114
ON THE WEB 115
ON THE WEB 116
Perpetuities and the Relationship between Interest
Yields and Bond Prices 116
Management Notebook
Recalculating Libor 117
Term to Maturity and Interest Rate Risk 118
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
How Are Interest Yields, Financial Instrument Prices, and
Interest Rate Risk Interrelated? 119
The Term Structure of Interest Rates 119
Yield Curves 119
Segmented Markets Theory 120
The Expectations Theory 120
The Preferred Habitat Theory 122
The Risk Structure of Interest Rates 122
Default Risk 123
Liquidity 123
Tax Differences 124
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
Why Do Market Interest Yields Vary with Differences in
Financial Instruments’ Terms to Maturity? 124
Interest Rate Differentials—Excess Returns and Failure of
Uncovered Interest Parity 124
Breakdowns of Uncovered Interest Parity
and Excess Returns 125
Excess Returns 125
Evidence on Excess Returns 125
Accounting for Differences in Excess Returns to Help
Explain International Interest Rate Differences 125
DESIGN SERVICES OF
# 110305 Cust: Pearson Au: Daniels/Van Hoose Pg. No. xv K
S4carlisle
Publishing Services
xvi Contents
Management Notebook
Do Excess Returns Vary at Different Bond Maturities? 126
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Factors Explain Why International Interest Rate
Differentials Are Often Inconsistent with the Uncovered-
Interest-Parity Condition? 127
Real Interest Rates and Real Interest Parity 127
Real Interest Rates: The Fisher Equation 128
Real Interest Parity 128
Combining Relative Purchasing Power Parity and Uncovered
Interest Parity 128
Deviations from Real Interest Parity as a Measure of
International Market Arbitrage 129
Management Notebook
How Long Does It Take for Real Interest Rates to
Converge? 129
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Are Real Interest Rates, and How Can Real-Interest-
Rate Differentials Serve as Indicators of the Extent to Which
International Markets Are Open to Arbitrage? 130
Hedging, Speculation, and Derivative Securities 130
Possible Responses to Interest Rate Risk 130
Some Strategies for Limiting Interest Rate Risk 131
Hedging 131
Derivative Securities 131
Hedging with Forward Contracts 132
Speculation with Derivatives 132
Speculative Gains and Losses 133
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Are Derivative Securities? 134
Common Derivative Securities and Their Risks 135
Forward Contracts 135
Futures 135
DESIGN SERVICES OF
# 110305 Cust: Pearson Au: Daniels/Van Hoose Pg. No. xvi K
S4carlisle
Publishing Services
Contents xvii
ON THE WEB 136

Interest Rate Futures 136
Stock-Index Futures 136
Currency Futures 136
ON THE WEB 137
Hedging with Currency Futures 137
Daily Futures Settlement 138
Options 139
Stock Options and Futures Options 139
Currency Options 139
Netting 142
Swaps 143
Currency Swaps 143
Types of Swaps 144
Derivatives Risks and Regulation 145
Measuring Derivatives Risks 145
Types of Derivatives Risks 145
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Are the Most Commonly Traded Derivative
Securities? 146
Chapter Summary 146
Chapter 6 International Banking, Central Banks, and Supranational

Financial Policymaking Institutions 151
International Dimensions of Financial Intermediation 152
Financial Intermediation 152
Asymmetric Information 153
Adverse Selection 153
Moral Hazard 153
Economies of Scale 154
DESIGN SERVICES OF
# 110305 Cust: Pearson Au: Daniels/Van Hoose Pg. No. xvii K
S4carlisle
Publishing Services
xviii Contents
Financial Intermediation across National Boundaries 154

International Financial Intermediation 155
Economies of Scale and Global Banking 155
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Accounts for International Financial Intermediation, and
How Do National Banking Systems Differ? 156
Global Payments and Financial System Risks 156
Global Payment Systems 157
Nonelectronic Payment Systems 157
Electronic Payment Systems 158
ON THE WEB 158
Payment-System Risks 158
Liquidity Risk 159
Credit Risk 159
Systemic Risk 160
Herstatt Risk 160
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Are the World’s Major Bank Payment Systems, and How
Do the Risks That Arise in National Financial and Banking
Systems Contribute to the Potential for Financial Instability
and Crises? 161
Financial Instability and International Financial Crises 161
Economic Imbalances and International Financial
Crises 161
Self-Fulfilling Expectations and Contagion Effects 162
Structural Moral Hazard Problems 162
Management Notebook
From Fish to Finance—and Back to Fish Again? 163
Bank Regulation and Capital Requirements 163
ON THE WEB 164
The Goals of Bank Regulation 164
Limiting the Scope for Bank Insolvencies and Failures 164
Maintaining Bank Liquidity 164
DESIGN SERVICES OF
# 110305 Cust: Pearson Au: Daniels/Van Hoose Pg. No. xviii K
S4carlisle
Publishing Services
Contents xix
Promoting an Efficient Banking System 164

Policy Notebook
Engaging in War Games Pays Off for Bank Regulators 165
ON THE WEB 165
Bank Capital Requirements 166
The Three Pillars of the Basel Regulatory System 167
Policy Notebook
Will More Risk-Based Capital Regulation Make Banking More
Procyclical? 167
Market-Based Regulation? 169
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Objectives Do National Banking Regulators Seek to
Achieve, and How Do They Implement Their Regulations? 169
Central Banks 169
ON THE WEB 169
Central Bank Assets 170
Central Bank Liabilities and Net Worth 171
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Are the Main Assets and Liabilities of Central
Banks? 172
What Do Central Banks Do? 172
Central Banks as Government Banks 172
Central Banks as Government Depositories 172
Central Banks as Fiscal Agents 172
Central Banks as Bankers’ Banks 173
Do Banks “Need” a Central Bank? 173
Lenders of Last Resort 173
Central Banks as Monetary Policymakers 174
Interest Rates on Central Bank Advances 174
Open-Market Operations 176
Reserve Requirements 177
Interest Rate Regulations and Direct Credit Controls 177
DESIGN SERVICES OF
# 110305 Cust: Pearson Au: Daniels/Van Hoose Pg. No. xix K
S4carlisle
Publishing Services
xx Contents
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Are the Primary Functions of Central Banks? 178
Supranational Financial Policymaking Institutions 178
The International Monetary Fund 178
The World Bank 181
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Are the Two Most Important Supranational Financial
Policymaking Institutions, and What Are Their Functions in the
International Financial System? 182
Chapter Summary 182
Chapter 7 The International Financial Architecture and

Emerging Economies 187
International Capital Flows 188
Explaining the Direction of Capital Flows 188
Foreign Direct Investment and Developed Nations 188
ON THE WEB 188
Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions 189
ON THE WEB 190
The Emerging Economies 190
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Are the Most Important Developments in the Recent
Evolution of Global Capital Markets? 191
Capital Allocations and Economic Growth 191
How Capital Inflows Can Smooth the Domestic
Economy 192
How Capital Inflows Can Contribute to Long-Term
Development 192
Capital Misallocations and Their Consequences 193
Market Imperfections 193
DESIGN SERVICES OF
# 110305 Cust: Pearson Au: Daniels/Van Hoose Pg. No. xx K
S4carlisle
Publishing Services
Contents xxi
Policy-Created Distortions 193

Financial Instability and Financial Crises 194
Maximizing Benefits and Minimizing Risks 194
Where Do Financial Intermediaries Fit In? 195
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Is the Relationship between Capital Allocations
and Economic Growth, and What Is the Role of Financial
Intermediaries in This Relationship? 195
Capital Market Liberalization and International Financial
Crises 196
Are All Capital Flows Equal? 196
Portfolio Capital Flows 196
Foreign Direct Investment 196
Management Notebook
Private Capital Flows: Source of Instability or Engine of
Economic Development? 197
The Role of Capital Flows in Recent Crisis Episodes 198
ON THE WEB 198
Foreign Direct Investment as a Stabilizing Element 198
Is There a Role for Capital Controls? 199
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Is the Difference between Portfolio Capital Flows and
Foreign Direct Investment, and What Role Did These Types of
Capital Flows Play in Recent Financial Crises? 200
Exchange-Rate Regimes and Financial Crises 200
Schools of Thought on Exchange-Rate Regimes 200
The Corners Hypothesis 201
Dollarization 201
The Benefits of Dollarization 201
The Costs of Dollarization 202
Dollarized Economies 202
Peg, Take the Middle Road, or Float? 202
The “Trilemma” 203
DESIGN SERVICES OF
# 110305 Cust: Pearson Au: Daniels/Van Hoose Pg. No. xxi K
S4carlisle
Publishing Services
xxii Contents
Policy Notebook
Differences in Cross-Country Patterns in Addressing the
Trilemma Issue 204
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Type of Exchange-Rate Regime Is Most Appropriate for
Emerging Economies? 205
Evaluating the Status Quo 205
Ex Ante versus Ex Post Conditionality at the IMF 205
Online Notebook
Data Dissemination via the Internet 206
Searching for a Mission at the World Bank 206
Policy Notebook
Should National Policymakers Promote Microlending? 207
ON THE WEB 208
Debt Relief for the Heavily Indebted
Poor Countries 209
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Aspects of IMF and World Bank Policymaking Have
Proved Controversial in Recent Years? 210
Does the International Financial Architecture Need a
Redesign? 210
Crisis Prediction and Early-Warning Systems 210
Rethinking Economic Institutions and Policies 211
Rethinking Long-Term Development Lending 211
Alternative Institutional Structures for Limiting Financial
Crises 212
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Changes in the International Financial Architecture
Have Economists Proposed in Recent Years? 214
Chapter Summary 214
DESIGN SERVICES OF
# 110305 Cust: Pearson Au: Daniels/Van Hoose Pg. No. xxii K
S4carlisle
Publishing Services
Contents xxiii
Part 3 Exchange-Rate and Balance-of-Payments

Determination 219
Chapter 8 Traditional Approaches to Balance-of-Payments and
Exchange-Rate Determination 220
Common Characteristics of the Traditional
Approaches 221
Exports, Imports, and the Demand for and Supply of Foreign
Exchange 221
Derivation of the Demand for Foreign Exchange 221
Elasticity and the Demand for Foreign Exchange 222
Derivation of the Supply of Foreign Exchange 223
Elasticity and the Supply of Foreign Exchange 224
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
How Do the Supply of Exports and Demand for Imports
Determine the Supply of and Demand for Foreign
Exchange? 226
The Elasticities Approach 226
The Exchange Rate and the Balance of Payments 226
The Role of Elasticity 227
ON THE WEB 228
The Marshall–Lerner Condition 228
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Is the Elasticities Approach to Balance-of-Payments
and Exchange-Rate Determination? 229
Short- and Long-Run Elasticity Measures and the
J-Curve 229
Short-Run versus Long-Run Time Horizons 229
The J-Curve Effect 230
Management Notebook
Industry-Level Evidence of J-Curve Effects for Bilateral Trade
between Canada and the United States 231
DESIGN SERVICES OF
# 110305 Cust: Pearson Au: Daniels/Van Hoose Pg. No. xxiii K
S4carlisle
Publishing Services
xxiv Contents
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Is the J-Curve Effect? 231
Pass-Through Effects 232
ON THE WEB 232
Management Notebook
Market Power and Variations in U.S. Exchange-Rate
Pass-Through Effects 232
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Are Pass-Through Effects? 233
The Absorption Approach 233
Modeling the Absorption Approach 233
Absorption 234
Real Income 234
The Current Account 234
Determination of the Current Account Balance 234
Economic Expansion and Contraction 235
An Economic Expansion 235
An Economic Contraction 235
ON THE WEB 236
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
What Is the Absorption Approach to Balance-of-Payments
and Exchange-Rate Determination? 236
Policy Instruments 236
FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES
How Do Changes in Real Income and Absorption Affect a
Nation’s Current Account Balance and the Foreign Exchange
Value of Its Currency? 237
Chapter Summary 238
DESIGN SERVICES OF
# 110305 Cust: Pearson Au: Daniels/Van Hoose Pg. No. xxiv K
S4carlisle
Publishing Services
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
The Project Gutenberg eBook of One touch of
Terra
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where
you are located before using this eBook.
Title: One touch of Terra
Author: Hannes Bok
Release date: November 19, 2023 [eBook #72173]
Language: English
Original publication: New York, NY: King-Size Publications, Inc, 1956
Credits: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed

Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ONE TOUCH

OF TERRA ***
one touch of terra
By HANNES BOK
Maybe they had been bad mannered—accepting things

of her—but who was to guess the Martian would interfere?
Hannes Bok, who has been part of the

world of Science Fiction and Fantasy
for so many years, tells the touching
story of Trixie and her dandelions, in
the little mining camp on Venus, and
how one of them th'ar Martians tried
to do her—and the citizens of
Finchburg—wrong.... Of course
Goreck was just giving Trixie the
runaround. All he was really after was
her dandelions ... as you would have
been....
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from

Fantastic Universe December 1956.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
"Listen, Elmer!" Horseface Smith told his gwip. "What's that racket
ahead—yellin', shootin', or both?"
Elmer obediently stopped and cocked his duck-head in the direction
of Finchburg, then nodded sagely, if somewhat ambiguously. He was
a pack animal of the sort commonly used by psithium-prospectors on
Venus, now that interplanetary travel was commonplace, and he was
almost as intelligent as a human.
Despite his size—he was nearly as large as a terrestrial horse—he
must have had a dash of flying-squirrel blood, since when in a hurry
gwips were apt to bound off the ground, flattening their plump bodies
in a flying-squirrel glide which took them thirty to fifty feet per jump.
But at present Elmer wasn't able to do any bounding. His saddle-
bags were sagging with samples of ore, and he had all he could do
just to walk.
Horseface clunked his heels on Elmer's sides, urging him up the
stony hillside. They gained the summit and craned down at
Finchburg, only half a mile below. Like most of the mining-
settlements scattered sparsely over the vast Venus deserts, it
consisted of scarcely a dozen buildings, none of them new, but all in
reasonably good repair. If it is true that a town speaks for its
inhabitants, Finchburg plainly declared that while its people might be
down on their luck, but they hadn't lost hope.
"Looks like Trixie is blowing her jets," Horseface speculated, and
Elmer dipped his broad bill in agreement. "Wonder what's eating
her? She ain't acted human for months!"
Elmer cocked an inquiring eye on his master as if asking whether
Trixie's behavior could possibly be considered gwippish. He decided
not, and clucked sympathetically. He knew all about Trixie's
idiosyncrasies. But then, who—or what—didn't?
Trixie O'Neill was the only woman within a thousand miles of the
Venus Flats, and furthermore, the only terrestrial woman. She wasn't
young nor beautiful. She was in her middle fifties, gaunt, coarse, and
had a wooden leg.
She'd come to Finchburg thirty years ago at the height of the
psithium rush. She'd been young and pretty then, and desperately in
love with her prospector-spouse Mike O'Neill. Mike had been a
roistering giant, but he hadn't lasted long on Venus. The acid dust
had eaten his lungs away, and in less than a year he'd been laid to
rest down in an abandoned mine.
Almost immediately the veins of psithium had petered out. The mine-
owners closed the shafts and took away their expensive equipment
imported nut-by-bolt by rocket from Earth. Finchburg became a
ghost-town. All the miners except for die-hards like Horseface had
moved far away to the more promising strikes of Satterlee, Guzil
Banks and Storington.
But Trixie remained at Finchburg. "My Mike's buried here, ain't he?
Awright—where he stays, I stay!"
And she went on doggedly doing Mike's work until a cave-in crushed
one of her legs, after which she set up a hostelry which was a one-
woman service-bureau—she washed the miners' clothes, served
their meals, kept their books, sold supplies to them and most of all
kept up their morale. She provided the woman's touch, and the men
adored her.
But the touch which they worshiped abjectly was of Terra itself—half
of a blistered blast-tube filled with Terrestrial soil and growing
genuine Terrestrial dandelions, rather scrubby and colorless ones,
but from good old Terra just the same.
When you thought you'd choke on one more whiff of the bitter
Venus-dust, when you remembered the green lushness of Terra and
wished you were back there, knowing you could never find enough
psithium to pay your passage—then you went to Trixie's place,
looked at her dandelions and maybe touched your finger to the dirt in
which they grew—and you went away feeling better somehow. You'd
been home again for a little while.
And if anybody saw a tear in your eye, he looked the other way.
Because maybe tomorrow he'd be doing the same.
Why, there hadn't been a Mercurian in camp for years. They were
afraid to come here ever since the earthmen had run out of town that
one who'd got drunk on vhubi, upset the tube and tried to trample the
plants.
No man, you didn't treat Trixie or her dandelions lightly. They were
sacred.
"Hey," Horseface asked Elmer, "is that a rocket down there? A rocket
—in Finchburg?"
Elmer peered forward and said, "Wak, wak!" in a meshed-gears
voice, meaning yes.
"A rocket!" Horseface marvelled. "Maybe it's visitors from Terra! Or
maybe it's news of a new strike! Gee-jup, Elmer! Time's a-jettin'!"
They started down the hillside's hairpin turns. The shouting grew
more strident, and at times Horseface heard the raucous yowl of
blaster-guns.
Celebration!
"Yippity!" Horseface bellowed, firing his own gun in the air.
But it turned out to be anything but a celebration. Horseface rushed
Elmer into the community stable, unhooked the saddle-bags,
dropped the stall-bar, and ran toward Trixie's place, "The Pride of
Terra".
Every man in the camp was waiting at the door, and waiting
vociferously. The comments mingled into an indistinguishable
babble. A few miners were loitering around the rocket, a small two-
seater, like mice cagily inspecting a new and baffling trap. Horseface
recognized it by the device emblazoned on one of its doors—a
yellow sunburst on a grey square, the insignia of United Mars.
The rocket belonged to Thurd Goreck, the Martian. Goreck hadn't
been in town for years. He and his fellows had their diggings over at
Saturday Wells, "Saturday" for short, in the west. What, Horseface
wondered, possibly could have brought him here?
Since Horseface was a little below average height, he couldn't see
over the heads of the crowd. He raced up the steps of an old ruin
opposite Trixie's establishment. A shrieking beam from a blast-gun
fired at random just missed him and scorched the wood overhead.
He heard Trixie's bark: "Stop it, boys, do you hear me? Somebody's
likely to get hurt!"
She was standing in her doorway, a big sculpturesque woman with
her feet planted solidly wide and her red fists on her broad hips. Her
face was square and rough-hewn as a man's, the skin leathery from
years of weathering. She'd thrown her blue lace scarf around her
shoulders, the scarf that Mike O'Neill had given her on their first
anniversary. Her crystal earrings dangled under her cottony hair—a
bad sign. Trixie never put on her shawl and earrings unless thinking
of leaving town.
Thurd Goreck lounged against the door-frame beside her. Like most
Martians, he was tall and spindle-legged, large-chested, big-nosed
and equipped with almost elephantine ears. He displayed quite a
paternal solicitude whenever he looked at Trixie, but he sneered
openly at the yelping crowd.
"Don't do it, Trix!" somebody roared above the din.
"You'll be sorry!" another warned.
Still another wanted to know, "Have you forgotten Mike?"
Then Horseface noticed that the other Martians from Goreck's
settlement were ranged on either side of Trixie and Goreck, holding
off the Finchburgers. It was they who were doing most of the firing—
warning blasts over the crowd's heads.
"No," Trixie yelled, "I ain't forgotten Mike. He was a better man than
the lot of you put together!"
Horseface whistled to Candy Derain, who turned and edged toward
him. "What's up, Candy?"
"Man!" Candy reached at him. "You're just the one we need—Trixie's
running away! You got to do something quick!"
"She's—huh?"
"Goreck's been lazing around town almost ever since you went out
nugget hunting. He's taking Trixie to Saturday—going to set her up
there in a new place. He was smart and waited till you weren't
around, 'cause he knows you cut a lot of ice with Trix. You got to stop
her—"
A roar from the crowd cut him short. It sounded as if all the men
simultaneously had been jabbed with ice picks.
"Look!"
"No!"
"They're stealing our Terra!"
"Trixie, you can't do this to us—you can't!"
"Ain't you got no heart at all?"
Horseface goggled, and groaned. Trixie and Goreck had stepped
aside, making room for those Martians who were coming out with the
blast-tube and its dandelions.
"Howling Gizzlesteins!" Horseface moaned. Then determinedly, "One
side, Candy!"
He launched into the mob, shouldering, prodding and elbowing room
for himself until he was out in front. A Martian significantly poked a
blaster in his ribs.
"Trixie!" Horseface bawled, "what do you think you're doing?"
She scowled more fiercely than ever. "You!" she thundered, pointing
a muscular arm for emphasis. "You're a fine one, asking me that! I'm
clearing out of here, that's what. I'm sick and tired of all you useless
loafers preying on my good nature! Ain't it so, Goreck?"
The Martian nodded, grinning.
"For years and years," Trixie cried on, "you've been bleeding me dry!
Trixie will you do this for me? Trixie will you do that? And I been
doing it 'cause I felt sorry for you hopeless free-loaders, like as if
maybe you was my own Mike. But now I'm through with you—and
why? 'Cause you never treated me like no lady, that's why! You don't
deserve a woman's kindness, Goreck says, and he's right!"
The uproar was dying down, no doubt keeping the miners' spirits
company.
"Maybe I ain't no raving beauty," Trixie continued, "but that don't
mean I ain't no lady, see?" In her next remark she used questionable
words of interstellar origin—it is doubtful if they could have been said
to have enriched any language. "Why, you frownzley glorfels, you
even swear in front of me! So I'm clearing out. I've more than paid
my debt to Mike, Lord rest him."
As the groans began, she gestured airily. "Put the flowers in the
rocket, lads!"
"But Trixie!" Horseface called, pushing a step ahead. The Martian's
gun dug a trifle deeper into his side.
"Eassy doess it," the Martian admonished in his whistling accent.
Horseface cried, "We're your own people, Trixie! You can't ditch us
for Martians!"
"My people are the people treating me with respect!" she retorted,
and Horseface's long visage fell several inches longer.
Goreck's Martians slid the dandelion-container into the rocket's
baggage compartment and stood back, forming a lane down which
Goreck assisted Trixie with exaggerated politeness. Surely she
should have seen that his smirk was purely one of triumph!
But she didn't. She swung along on her wooden leg, thrilled to the
core, beaming coyly at Goreck and actually blushing. He handed her
into the rocket, let her arrange herself comfortably, then went to the
other side of the flyer and swung aboard.
He slammed the door shut and reached for the controls. He treated
the assemblage to one last sneer so poisonous that even a coral
snake would have flinched from it. Trixie leaned across him to thumb
her nose—after all, Emily Post and Amy Vanderbilt had been dead
for a century.
The Martian with his gun in Horseface's midriff stepped back and
away. Horseface would have rushed after him, but Mouse Digby
caught him from behind.
"Hold it, Horseface!" And more softly, "We been up to something—"
Goreck pulled the rocket's power-lever with a grand flourish. Nothing
happened. He smiled sweetly at Trixie, shrugged and dragged on
the lever again. Nothing happened. On the third try he nearly
wrenched the stick from its socket. From one of the rocket's jets, as
though torn from its very heart, came two feeble sparks and a
mournful burp.
"We busted their feed-line!" Digby chuckled.
Goreck, having gone thus far, was not minded to stop now. He
sprang from the rocket, called something in Martian to his men, and
several of them raced away. The miners cheered perhaps a shade
precipitately and bore down on the rest. The gun-toting Martians
filled the air with frantic warning blasts and were swept down before
they could turn their weapons to more practical use. The miners
reeled around the rocket, swaying it as they clubbed the Martians
with their own guns.
Goreck backed them away with well-laced blasts near their toes—
what was known as "the quick hotfoot" since it turned the ground
molten. He maneuvered himself with his back to his ship, his men
breaking free and joining him.
Trixie clambered out seething with wrath. "You brakking chadouzes!"
she howled, brandishing a brawny fist. The men subsided sheepishly
silent. She was accustomed to having her way, and they were
accustomed to letting her have it. It had proved the best policy in the
long run.
"Look at you, brawling and trying to keep me from having the one
thing I want more than anything else—being treated lady-like! You
think I got any sympathy for you when you act like this? You can't
keep me here no longer, and you might as well realize it—and leave
me go!"
They muttered angrily, but there was nothing to do except surrender.
Horseface didn't bother to sheathe his gun—he threw it down in the
dust. Mouse Digby, who'd been so elated over the stalling of the
rocket, turned away and burst into tears.
The men were driven farther back as Trixie's supply-jeep snorted up
to the rocket, driven by those Martians to whom Goreck earlier had
shouted. They leaped down and assisted their fellow in transferring
the dandelions from the rocket to the jeep.
"Dissable my sship, will you?" Goreck asked, grinning foxily. "Well,
as we Martians say, there are plenty of ways to cook a gnorph!"
He snapped his fingers to one of his big-eared breed. "Phorey, you
drive the jeep over to Ssaturday." Trixie started toward the jeep and
he halted her—very courteously, of course. "No, my dear lady, we
will let the jeep go firsst. Then we can be certain that nobody
followss after it to rob you of your lovely flowerss. We will leave
later."
The jeep chugged away. Trixie was very red-faced and unable to
look at her erst-while Finchburg admirers. Perhaps, Horseface
hoped, she was relenting. But if she were, Goreck knew how to
prevent it.
"Ssuch clods, to sstare sso at a lady!" he purred, and Trixie glared
relentlessly at the men who had adored her so long—and apparently,
so vainly.
Since Goreck's rocket was damaged beyond immediate repair, he
rode off with Trixie on the town borer, a community-owned tractor
equipped with a giant blaster and used in boring mine-tunnels. It was
not intended for general travel and rumbled away very slowly, kicking
up a great deal of dust. The other Martians had come on gwips,
which they now mounted, then made off in a hurry.
"You'll get your borer back when I get my rocket back!" Goreck called
from the wake of dust.
The Finchburgers stayed as they were, every spine an S of
dejection.
"With Trixie gone," Candy Derain mourned, "there ain't no use our
staying here. We'll all starve!"
Baldy Dunn said, "Maybe we was bad-mannered accepting things off
of her, but I always meant to pay her back as soon as I found me
some psithium. If I'd of thought—"
Horseface said, "Of course Goreck is just giving Trixie the
runaround. All he's really after is her dandelions, 'cause he knows
what they mean to us. He'll keep 'em till we go to his diggings to
work for him, that's what! He'll charge us real money every time we
want to touch 'em—and where are we going to get money? It's like
he's holding 'em for ransom!"
He set his jaw. "Well, we ain't going to let him get away with it! When
Trixie finds out what a nopper he is, she'll be sorry, sure—but she
won't never come back here on account of she's too proud! She'll
just stay in Saturday being Goreck's slave, her poor heart
meanwhiles busting—and I ain't going to let her!"
He started briskly for the stable, the others hesitantly trailing along.
"I'm getting on Elmer and going after her. Dandelions be
desubricated, I'm going to save Trixie in spite of herself!"
But it seemed that everybody was having that identical idea at once.
Not all of them owned gwips, so the party of rescuers set off on a
peculiar assortment of vehicles—Candy on his vacuum-cup bicycle
meant for scaling precipices, Baldy Dunn and several others on pick-
wielding ore-cars, some on the psithium-detectors, and Digby on the
mowing-machine which cut and baled grasses for the feeding of the
gwips. About a third of the expedition had to go afoot.
In no time at all, Horseface and the other gwip-riders had far
outstripped the clumsy machines and the pedestrians. As Elmer
soared toward Saturday in forty-foot bounds, Horseface called to the
rider abreast of him:
"Wasn't that Martian driving Trixe's jeep Phorey Yakkermunn? Yeah?
Kind of thought so! Remembered him from way back when the rush
was on," he mumbled to himself. "Seemed a little crazy even then,
and guess he had to be, to go and turn against us what used to be
his buddies. Elmer, for the love of Pete, space your jumps—you're
beating the breath out of me!"
He came to a fork in the road and turned left, following the borer's
tracks. Then he halted, letting the other gwips overtake him. They
had started after Trixie too late. A swathe of sip-flowers had moved
in across the road.
"Might as well try to swim through space to Terra!" Horseface
lamented. "Blast them zips!"
But it wouldn't have done him much good if he had blasted them.
The zips were pretty things, something like Terrestrial tiger-lilies—
brilliant orange cups on tall green stems. They grew very thickly and
had been named because of their incredibly swift life-cycle. In five
seconds they would zip up from the ground as sprouts, attain full
green growth, blossom, produce seed, fall withering and scatter the
seed which in another five seconds would do the same thing over
again.
Nobody possibly could wedge through their rank masses. If anyone
tried, and were somehow to reach their midst, he would find himself
being tossed up and down at five-second intervals as though being
hazed on a blanket.
The zips traveled whichever way the wind carried their seeds—which
happened right now to be away from Saturday. If the salt plains and
chains of vertical peaks had not checked them, they might have
choked the whole of Venus centuries ago.
Horseface blinked at them, dismayed. The other men also blinked,
since the continual change from bare earth to green stems to orange
blooms and back to bare earth again took place in five snaps of the
fingers, like the winking of an illuminated sign.
Elmer helpfully tried to eat them, but they vanished in decay even as
his beak closed over them. And they stretched for miles and miles.
"Awrk!" He spat them out and shrugged discouragedly, almost
hurling Horseface off the saddle.
"Guess we got to detour," Horseface sighed. They skirted the
encroaching zips and ran smack into a sheerly perpendicular cliff.
While they were wondering what to do next, Candy purred up on his
vacuum-cup bicycle.
"At least I can ride up and over," he said, switching gear. He shot up
the cliff and out of sight, the suction-cups popping like a string of fire-
crackers.
"You fool, come back here!" Horseface bawled, but Candy was out of
earshot by then. "He's forgot there's nothing but rock-spires for miles
and miles on the other side. He'll ride up and down for hours and get
no farther forward than a hundred yards!"
He thumped his heels on Elmer's sides. "Gee-jup, Elmer—we'll have
to try the other end of the zips."
Digby hailed him from the mower. "Should I try cutting a path through
'em?"
"How can you, when they die before your blade turns, and grow up
before it can turn again? They'll bounce you to butter and shake the
mower to bits."
"But we got to do something!"
By now the men on the detectors and ore-cars had caught up with
the gwips, and the men on foot were within hailing distance.
"We're licked," Horseface mourned. "Ain't nothing we can do, except
try the other end of the zips—and that's miles away. We're finished."
But they weren't. Elmer sneezed, exclaimed, "Yuk, yuk!" and jabbed
his bill to indicate the cliffs.
Horseface sniffed. "Smells like rock-dust. If I didn't know better, I'd
say somebody's been boring through the rock—hey! Trix and Goreck
were riding on the borer! The zips must have cut them off the road
like us! Come on, boys, look for the hole they made—boring a tunnel
to cut past the zips!"
He didn't need to nudge Elmer. The gwip leaped toward the rocks,
found the hole and slowed to a crouching walk into it. The passage
was eight feet in diameter and reeking of blasted rock. After about a
hundred yards it emerged into daylight but encountered zips en
masse and so returned inward for several hundred yards more.
"That means Goreck wasted a lot of time tunneling," Horseface said
happily. "Maybe we ain't so terrible far behind after all."
There was a shriek from the rear, and he reined Elmer. "What's
that?"
"Dunno," the next man said, turning to look back.
They waited. One of the pedestrians came sprinting. "Hey, the
detectors found a whopping vein of psithium—bigger than the one
that started the old-time rush!"
"Huh, is that all?" Horseface demanded. "Forget it! We got to save
Trixie!"
The borer had traveled faster than Horseface had imagined. He

didn't come in sight of it until the party reached Saturday. It was just
stopping in front of Goreck's tavern, "The Martian's Fancy". Goreck
was handing Trixie down from it.
Saturday was a lot less of a ghost-town than Finchburg. Maybe there
were weeds in its main street, but every house had its occupants,
and some had coats of paint besides.
Elmer braked at the borer, his claws deeply furrowing the dust.
Horseface called, "Trix, come on back! We come to save you in spite
of yourself!"
Goreck whistled, and a flock of his boys materialised on the porch of
"The Martian's Fancy".
"Trouble, boyss! Sstand ready!"
Then he smiled at Horseface and the other Finchburgers. It was a
masterpiece of insult. "I don't like blast-play or dangerouss fighting,
but if necessary, I'll resort to it. You've no authority to argue, sso go
before you get hurt. Trixie iss here because she wants to be here—
no, my dear?"
He nudged her. She jumped, looked as though she was about to bat
him one, then gulped and nodded. She couldn't look in the eyes of
Horseface and his party.
Horseface laid his hand on his blaster-butt. "It don't make no particle
of difference. Maybe you fooled Trix, but you ain't fooled us, so hand
her over, see?"
Goreck twinkled jovially at his men in front of "The Martian's Fancy".
He said, "Horseface, I warn you—get back, and take your hand off
your gun. As long as I have the dandelionss ssafe inside my
headquarterss, I'm quite ssure that you won't dare try anything
reckless—"
"Boss! Psst!" One of the Martians was beckoning nervously.
"What is it?" Goreck demanded testily. "Sspeak up! There'ss nothing
to fear—we've got the whip hand."
"But, boss—"
Goreck dropped his own hand to his own gun. The Martian hastily
piped, "The dandelionss! They didn't get here!"
"I—what—ulp!" Goreck spluttered, which made beautiful sense even
if it wasn't coherent. He dived behind Trixie as though behind a rock,
and whipped out his gun.
"Looking klambits!" Mouse Digby moaned. "The zips! They got
Phorey and the jeep and the dandelions! Shook 'em to pieces!"
He pressed his mouth into a slit and started grimly forward. But
Trixie's scream checked him.
"My dandelions! Gone! All gone! Just 'cause I wanted to be treated
nice—"
Horseface said, "You see? That's what you get for being so foolish.
And ain't us coming to fetch you kind of a compliment? It's sure took
us a lot more effort than Goreck's sweet-talking did. You, Goreck, get
out from behind a woman's skirts! That ain't no way for a gentleman
to act!"
"Trixie, back up to the Fancy," Goreck snapped. "Hide me. Boyss,"
he squeaked, gesturing wildly, "let 'em have it!"
"No you don't! You ain't going to shoot my old pardners!" Trixie
fumed, even as a number of rays from Martian blasters sang past.
The Finchburgers ducked, not daring to shoot while Trixie was so
near their targets.
She turned, swooped and had Goreck off the ground, high over her
head and squawking. He didn't dare shoot her since she was his
only hope of salvation, and the Martians didn't either.
They just stopped fighting.
Trixie walked Goreck over to Horseface and thumped him down on
the dust. The rest of the Martians held a quick exchange of ideas
limited strictly to gestures, and began to melt away from the scene.
"Fortune hunter! Deceiver!" Trixie bawled at Goreck who was already
wretched enough with blasters poked in his face. "You promised me
you'd do it all peaceful, and still you wanted to shoot my pardners!

FULL Download Ebook PDF International Monetary Financial Economics by Daniels PDF Ebook

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

FULL Download Ebook PDF International Monetary Financial Economics by Daniels PDF Ebook

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

(eBook PDF) International Monetary

Financial Economics by Daniels

Chapter 2 The Market for Foreign Exchange 28

The Effect of Price Changes 35

Foreign Exchange Market Intervention 48

Chapter 3 Exchange-Rate Systems, Past to Present 58

Part 2 International Financial Instruments, Markets,

Risk and Uncovered Interest Parity 101

Chapter 5 Interest Yields, Interest Rate Risk, and Derivative

Interest Rates and Discounted Present Value 113

ON THE WEB 136

Chapter 6 International Banking, Central Banks, and Supranational

Financial Intermediation across National Boundaries 154

Promoting an Efficient Banking System 164

Chapter 7 The International Financial Architecture and

Policy-Created Distortions 193

Part 3 Exchange-Rate and Balance-of-Payments

Title: One touch of Terra

Author: Hannes Bok

Release date: November 19, 2023 [eBook #72173]

Original publication: New York, NY: King-Size Publications, Inc, 1956

Credits: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ONE TOUCH

Maybe they had been bad mannered—accepting things

Hannes Bok, who has been part of the

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from

The borer had traveled faster than Horseface had imagined. He

You might also like

Part 2 International Financial Instruments, Markets,